Difference between revisions of "Alive... OR ARE THEY"

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=== Owned by [[Yahoo!]] Imminent Demise! ===
=== Owned by [[Yahoo!]] Imminent Demise! ===


* '''[[Flickr]]''' contains billions of files, hundreds millions of which are under a Creative Commons license or stored there by many museums and other cultural institutions. The site was tumblr-ised in 2013 and has been poorly functional ever since; pro users were removed, so it doesn't yet have a business model. Additionally, it's owned by [[Yahoo!]], need to say more?!
* '''Yahoo and AOL''' properties are being sold by Verizon to hedge fund Apollo in 2021. The news comes immediately after the closure of [[Yahoo! Answers]] and will presumably be swiftly followed by radical disruption for the sake of short-term cash milking.<ref>{{url|https://www.reuters.com/technology/apollo-acquire-verizons-media-assets-5-bln-2021-05-03/}}</ref>
* <del>'''[[Flickr]]''' contains billions of files, hundreds millions of which are under a Creative Commons license or stored there by many museums and other cultural institutions. The site was tumblr-ised in 2013 and has been poorly functional ever since; pro users were removed, so it doesn't yet have a business model. Additionally, it's owned by [[Yahoo!]], need to say more?!</del>
** Flickr was sold to SmugMug in 2018, purged the biggest non-paying and non-freely licensed accounts and switched to a more predictable subscription-based model.


=== Watchlist ===
=== Watchlist ===


* '''[[Academic Earth]]''' ({{url|1=http://academicearth.org/}}) has been worryingly unloved for a while, and holds a mountain of free education that's invaluable to the world.
* '''[[Academic Earth]]''' ({{url|1=http://academicearth.org/}}) has been worryingly unloved for a while, and holds a mountain of free education that's invaluable to the world.
* '''[[A-Infos]]''' ({{url|1=http://ainfos.ca/}}) a multi-lingual news service by, for, and about anarchists. Have stuff archived since the 90's that isn't available anywhere else.
* '''[[Encyclopedia Astronautica]]''' ({{url|1=http://www.astronautix.com/}}) is the most comprehensive collection of the history of space travel.  '''Period.'''  Seriously, the official NASA history folks will refer you this website if they can't answer your questions.  However, Mark Wade (the sole creator/maintainer) abandoned his blog at the end of 2007, and the Encyclopedia has not been updated since May 2008, despite much happening in the space exploration world since then. A [https://archive.org/details/EncyclopediaAstronautica backup] was made of the site as of 28/01/2017.
* '''[[Encyclopedia Astronautica]]''' ({{url|1=http://www.astronautix.com/}}) is the most comprehensive collection of the history of space travel.  '''Period.'''  Seriously, the official NASA history folks will refer you this website if they can't answer your questions.  However, Mark Wade (the sole creator/maintainer) abandoned his blog at the end of 2007, and the Encyclopedia has not been updated since May 2008, despite much happening in the space exploration world since then. A [https://archive.org/details/EncyclopediaAstronautica backup] was made of the site as of 28/01/2017.
* '''[[Angelfire]]''' has been in constant decline for many years now.
* '''[[Angelfire]]''' has been in constant decline for many years now.
* '''[[AnimeMusicVideos.org]]''' ({{url|1=http://www.animemusicvideos.org/}}) is fine right now, but they rely on donations and host vast amounts of user-edited music videos on their server (presumably without mirrors). Hard to download as you have to be a member to get all the download links, and after downloading a handful you have to vode before you can d/l again (or you can donate which presumably gives you 1 year of free d/l access). Also, this site might be a grey area, copyright-wise, as the videos are all cut together from copyrighted material.
* '''[[AnimeMusicVideos.org]]''' ({{url|1=http://www.animemusicvideos.org/}}) is fine right now, but they rely on donations and host vast amounts of user-edited music videos on their server (presumably without mirrors). Hard to download as you have to be a member to get all the download links, and after downloading a handful you have to vode before you can d/l again (or you can donate which presumably gives you 1 year of free d/l access). Also, this site might be a grey area, copyright-wise, as the videos are all cut together from copyrighted material.
* '''[[Archive of Our Own]]''' ({{url|1=https://archiveofourown.org/}}) is stable but contains a large catalog of fanfiction that would likely be lost if the site were to shut down.
* '''[[BetaArchive]]''' ({{url|http://www.betaarchive.com/}}) has Kafkaesque requirements to be able to access it, and apparently refuses to be backed up, presumably so that they get more visitors. Valuable cultural library of historic software with no backups? Aargh.
* '''[[BetaArchive]]''' ({{url|http://www.betaarchive.com/}}) has Kafkaesque requirements to be able to access it, and apparently refuses to be backed up, presumably so that they get more visitors. Valuable cultural library of historic software with no backups? Aargh.
* '''[[BioMedia Project]]''' ({{url|1=http://biomediaproject.com/bmp/}}) is a large archive of various BIONICLE media that has not had a notable update since 2015.
* '''[[BioMedia Project]]''' ({{url|1=http://biomediaproject.com/bmp/}}) is a large archive of various BIONICLE media that has not had a notable update since 2015.
* '''[[Carrd]]''' ({{url|1=https://carrd.co}}, {{url|1=https://crd.co}}, {{url|1=https://ju.mp}}, and {{url|1=https://uwu.ai}}) is a free web host, mainly used by minorities (the LGBTQ+ community and people with mental illnesses, for example) and Twitter/Tumblr communities. Also used for activism (one of the most popular Carrd websites is about Black Lives Matter, for example). Pretty stable as of now, but could become a good historical resource in the future.
* '''[[Codecademy]]''' ({{url|1=http://www.codecademy.com/}}) has a large amount of valuable coding lessons.
* '''[[Codecademy]]''' ({{url|1=http://www.codecademy.com/}}) has a large amount of valuable coding lessons.
* '''[[DatasheetArchive]]''' ({{url|1=http://www.datasheetarchive.com/}}) hosts over 350 million PDF datasheets for integrated circuits, some of which are very old and hard to track down otherwise. The site is slow from time to time and uses a convoluted IFRAME-based online viewer, presumably to make scraping the site harder. Nevertheless, multiple other similar sites exist, with large parts of their PDFs non-overlapping, so that at some point, all should be saved. Similar sites include http://doc.chipfind.<!-- -->ru/ (1.6m datasheets), http://www.alldatasheet.com/ (20m datasheets), http://www.datasheets.com/ (250m datasheets), http://www.datasheetcatalog.com/, http://freedatasheets.com/ and several others
* '''[[DatasheetArchive]]''' ({{url|1=http://www.datasheetarchive.com/}}) hosts over 350 million PDF datasheets for integrated circuits, some of which are very old and hard to track down otherwise. The site is slow from time to time and uses a convoluted IFRAME-based online viewer, presumably to make scraping the site harder. Nevertheless, multiple other similar sites exist, with large parts of their PDFs non-overlapping, so that at some point, all should be saved. Similar sites include http://doc.chipfind.<!-- -->ru/ (1.6m datasheets), http://www.alldatasheet.com/ (20m datasheets), http://www.datasheets.com/ (250m datasheets), http://www.datasheetcatalog.com/, http://freedatasheets.com/ and several others
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* '''[[Twitter]]''' ({{url|1=http://www.twitter.com/}}) is tweaking away, with a dire financial situation and [http://www.breitbart.com/tech/2016/02/06/twitter-in-meltdown-as-entire-userbase-revolts/ controversial decisions].
* '''[[Twitter]]''' ({{url|1=http://www.twitter.com/}}) is tweaking away, with a dire financial situation and [http://www.breitbart.com/tech/2016/02/06/twitter-in-meltdown-as-entire-userbase-revolts/ controversial decisions].
* '''[[Urban Dictionary]]''' ({{URL|https://www.urbandictionary.com/}}) is "a crowdsourced online dictionary for slang words and phrases"<ref>{{URL|https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Urban_Dictionary&oldid=926230888|Wikipedia}}</ref>. It's financed by ads and a web store, and there are no signs of serious trouble as of late 2019.
* '''[[Urban Dictionary]]''' ({{URL|https://www.urbandictionary.com/}}) is "a crowdsourced online dictionary for slang words and phrases"<ref>{{URL|https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Urban_Dictionary&oldid=926230888|Wikipedia}}</ref>. It's financed by ads and a web store, and there are no signs of serious trouble as of late 2019.
* '''[[Voat]]''' ({{url|1=https://voat.co/}}) is a content aggegator that gained a niche fanbase in June 2015 after a controversy on [[Reddit]]. A "Days Remaining" countdown appeared on the front page in February 2016 and [https://voat.co/v/whatever/comments/943274 has been confirmed] to be the number of startup credit days remaining, which were depleted in June 15, 2016. Voat relies on donations to run.
* '''[[WebCite]]''' ({{url|1=http://www.webcitation.org/}}) itself seems to be having trouble with funding, and is facing "possible discontinuation." As this site serves as a stable reference for fleeting Web references, it would be pretty disastrous if it went away.
* '''[[WebCite]]''' ({{url|1=http://www.webcitation.org/}}) itself seems to be having trouble with funding, and is facing "possible discontinuation." As this site serves as a stable reference for fleeting Web references, it would be pretty disastrous if it went away.
* '''[[whitehouse.gov]]''' ({{url|1=http://www.whitehouse.gov/}}) is up and running for #44, <s>but we've lost all info for #43. (See also: [http://www.kottke.org/09/01/old-whitehousegov-down-the-memory-hole kottke] and [http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/whitehousegov_president_web_presence.php Read Write Web].)</s> and #43 is available at http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/ thanks to the [http://kitenet.net/~joey/blog/entry/ephemera_vs_the_law/ Presidential Records Act]. We also want to watch out for site changes / disappeared pages that were embarrassing or whatnot.
* '''[[whitehouse.gov]]''' ({{url|1=http://www.whitehouse.gov/}}) is overhauled every time a new US president assumes office and changes continuously during the term. Old versions are preserved thanks to the [http://kitenet.net/~joey/blog/entry/ephemera_vs_the_law/ Presidential Records Act] (e.g. [http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/ George W. Bush's]), but we also want to watch out for site changes / disappeared pages that were embarrassing or whatnot.
* '''[[Wikia]]''' ({{url|1=http://www.wikia.com/}}), the for-pay arm of Wikipedia (just kidding, it's a different company, but shares a lot of people) is a repository of directed, unsubject-to-wikipolitics wikis, many of them intense and completist. It'd be bad for them to go away.
* '''[[Wikia]]''' ({{url|1=http://www.wikia.com/}}), the for-pay arm of Wikipedia (just kidding, it's a different company, but shares a lot of people) is a repository of directed, unsubject-to-wikipolitics wikis, many of them intense and completist. It'd be bad for them to go away.
* '''[[WikiLeaks]]''' ({{url|1=http://wikileaks.org/}}) contains several thousand leaked documents from sources such as the Iraq War and the cables famously known under the label 'Cablegate'. Due to the content on the website, and that PayPal and Amazon (very) quickly dropped their hosting for them during Cablegate's opening days, it should be considered a potential target for any number of government committees for quick shutdown. They have an uncertain financial situation, and the site was inaccessible for some time in 2010.
* '''[[WikiLeaks]]''' ({{url|1=http://wikileaks.org/}}) contains several thousand leaked documents from sources such as the Iraq War and the cables famously known under the label 'Cablegate'. Due to the content on the website, and that PayPal and Amazon (very) quickly dropped their hosting for them during Cablegate's opening days, it should be considered a potential target for any number of government committees for a quick shutdown. They have an uncertain financial situation, and the site was inaccessible for some time in 2010.
* '''[[Wikipedia]]''' ({{url|1=http://www.wikipedia.org/}}) will surely be here forever and ever! Fortunately, we don't have to take their word for it as they offer dumps of the data minus the photos. However no-one has verified that Wikipedia can actually be restored from these dumps. If disaster strikes then we could discover a serious problem.
* '''[[Wikipedia]]''' ({{url|1=http://www.wikipedia.org/}}) will surely be here forever and ever! Fortunately, we don't have to take their word for it as they offer dumps of the data minus the photos. However, no-one has verified that Wikipedia can actually be restored from these dumps. If disaster strikes then we could discover a serious problem.
* '''[[Writing]]''' ({{url|1=http://Writing.com/}}) A website for writing that was big in the 2000's. More and more restricted to guests and free users, as they are in need of money to keep the site running. Less and less popular for that reason


== Endangered ==
== Endangered ==


Did someone leave the oven on?
Did someone leave the oven on?
* '''[http://identifyyourbreyer.com/ Identify Your Breyer]''' Janice, the administrator and curator of this archive passed away very recently (between 8-12 June 2021), leaving the site in a state of limbo.  She'd been ill for several months and was in the ICU at the time of her passing.  Nobody else seems to know how to log into the web server (hosted at websitewelcome.com) so it's unknown where the backups are (if there are any) or if it's possible to download the entire site from the back-end.  Thus, we don't know how long the site will be up (hosting bills are now in an indeterminent state) and the domain registration (through Tucows) will expire on 2021-10-03T23:28:16Z.  Identify Your Breyer is a popular and busy community for Breyer horse collectors and modders with a great deal of information of use to the collector's community.


* '''[http://www.ning.com/ Ning]''' in 2010 has laid off 40% of staff and seems to be running out of money [http://techcrunch.com/2010/04/15/nings-bubble-bursts-no-more-free-networks-cuts-40-of-staff/]. There is certainly some networks worth archiving among the 2 million networks[http://blog.ning.com/2010/01/2-million-ning-networks.html] they host. Grouply[http://blog.grouply.com/grouply-welcomes-ning-networks/] and Posterous[http://blog.posterous.com/posterous-commits-to-building-a-ning-blog-imp] say they are going to offer migration tools.
* '''[http://www.ning.com/ Ning]''' in 2010 has laid off 40% of staff and seems to be running out of money [http://techcrunch.com/2010/04/15/nings-bubble-bursts-no-more-free-networks-cuts-40-of-staff/]. There is certainly some networks worth archiving among the 2 million networks[http://blog.ning.com/2010/01/2-million-ning-networks.html] they host. Grouply[http://blog.grouply.com/grouply-welcomes-ning-networks/] and Posterous[http://blog.posterous.com/posterous-commits-to-building-a-ning-blog-imp] say they are going to offer migration tools.
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* [[YTMND]] - supposed to be "closing down soon" in [https://gizmodo.com/who-killed-ytmnd-1785765611 2016], but still up 2 years later.
* [[YTMND]] - supposed to be "closing down soon" in [https://gizmodo.com/who-killed-ytmnd-1785765611 2016], but still up 2 years later.
* [[Giphy]]: Bought by Facebook, to be "integrated" (assimilated) into Instagram https://news.knowyourmeme.com/news/facebook-to-buy-giphy
*[[CodePlex]]: Read-only archive shutdown has been announced to happen in July.


== See Also ==
== See Also ==

Revision as of 09:41, 30 July 2021

Like many sites before them, these places indicate a sunny outlook, a clean bill of health and a total sense of "all systems go". But as we've found out from those many sites before them, fortunes can change overnight.

Archive Team considers these sites specifically of interest because they solicit so much content, contain so many works and projects by a wide group of people, or have the internet particularly dependent on them. Consider this a fire drill.. know what you can do to get your data off these sites and back them off for later.

Still Alive

Owned by Yahoo! Imminent Demise!

  • Yahoo and AOL properties are being sold by Verizon to hedge fund Apollo in 2021. The news comes immediately after the closure of Yahoo! Answers and will presumably be swiftly followed by radical disruption for the sake of short-term cash milking.[1]
  • Flickr contains billions of files, hundreds millions of which are under a Creative Commons license or stored there by many museums and other cultural institutions. The site was tumblr-ised in 2013 and has been poorly functional ever since; pro users were removed, so it doesn't yet have a business model. Additionally, it's owned by Yahoo!, need to say more?!
    • Flickr was sold to SmugMug in 2018, purged the biggest non-paying and non-freely licensed accounts and switched to a more predictable subscription-based model.

Watchlist

Endangered

Did someone leave the oven on?

  • Identify Your Breyer Janice, the administrator and curator of this archive passed away very recently (between 8-12 June 2021), leaving the site in a state of limbo. She'd been ill for several months and was in the ICU at the time of her passing. Nobody else seems to know how to log into the web server (hosted at websitewelcome.com) so it's unknown where the backups are (if there are any) or if it's possible to download the entire site from the back-end. Thus, we don't know how long the site will be up (hosting bills are now in an indeterminent state) and the domain registration (through Tucows) will expire on 2021-10-03T23:28:16Z. Identify Your Breyer is a popular and busy community for Breyer horse collectors and modders with a great deal of information of use to the collector's community.
  • Ning in 2010 has laid off 40% of staff and seems to be running out of money [1]. There is certainly some networks worth archiving among the 2 million networks[2] they host. Grouply[3] and Posterous[4] say they are going to offer migration tools.
  • As of 2014, ScraperWiki Classic is now read-only. But don’t worry! You can transfer this scraper to Morph.io if you want to continue editing it.
  • debates.oireachtas.ie on September 18th, 2012 the Houses of Oireachtas website announced that it would no longer be updating its XML data for Irish parliamentary debates (1919-2012). Access to pre-existing data is still available, but is likely to disappear, if the current trend continues. It would be useful to at least capture the XML data that is there, while it is still available. Here's a WARC archive of the XML only.
  • ownlog.com - once one of the most popular and oldest blog platform in Poland seems to be dying slowly - no development and actualizations except most critical maintenance.
  • Groklaw will no longer be posting new articles, "due to government monitoring of the internet, particularly e-mail." Whether or not its archives will remain online is unclear, although it does seem rather unlikely it will 100% disappear. OTOH, better safe than sorry.
  • Seene (https://seene.co/u/docpop/[IAWcite.todayMemWeb]) "lets you capture and share a new kind of 3D photo that brings together image, depth and movement to create a richer, more interactive experience, all on your iPhone." Unique content, but recently acquired by SnapChat - no new product updates since 2015. Likely to shut soon, unique and cool content.
  • Strawpoll.me
  • The Centralstation Community has closed. The site is a UK-based social network for artists and creatives that provides hosting for content and portfolio. Users are being advised to back up their work as the new version of their platform will rely on existing media hosting sites like Flickr, Vimeo, and Soundcloud.
  • Most of the paid staff at The Escapist has been "relieved of their duties" as of October 20, 2017, and the future and longevity of the site is uncertain; it's currently run mostly through volunteer efforts.
  • Yelp, Inc. lost 30% of its advertisers and people don't seem too happy about it.

Alarm

I smell smoke.

  • CtoSims Has been infected with a Javascript that redirects to different pages, and the owner seems to have not been active for a long time. The entire site now redirects to a placeholder page that says "Coming Soon!". As of December 2016, All Downloads have been taken down as well.
  • YTMND - supposed to be "closing down soon" in 2016, but still up 2 years later.
  • CodePlex: Read-only archive shutdown has been announced to happen in July.

See Also

References